“There is nothing for us to do,” Hieronymus said. “We might as well sleep while we can.”
“What if we shifted to something enormous, like an elephant, and broke out?”
“If our change doesn’t break the cauldron,” Hieronymus said. “I’ll all be crushed.”
I was certain the bulk of an elephant would force the cauldron to break, but Hieronymus had a valid point. In the process, he would likely be crushed to death. “So we just lay here and do nothing? We just depend on the others to figure out a way to free us?”
“We have no other choice,” Hieronymus said.
I sighed. “I’m going to look for a way out.”
I searched every millimeter of that cauldron, stubbing my toes, bumping my elbows and tripping over Hieronymus more than once. I covered the interior as best I could in the pitch black and then I did it again and again until I was sore and exhausted. I followed the sound of Hieronymus’ snoring and dropped down next to him.
With nothing else to do, I laid down and tried to get some sleep.
We were woken when a slim line of light entered the cauldron and something was dropped into the pot. The light disappeared and it took us a while to find the object in the dark. It was food wrapped in a blanket and water in a hollowed-out acorn. At least that’s what it felt like in the dark.
We ate and drank and watched for the light, our sense of time completely hindered by the depth of the darkness. We talked about our lives and plotted for the next time the lid was lifted and how we would rush for the light and escape, but the lid wasn’t lifted and we eventually fell asleep.
Days and nights blurred together, but we were fed and given water. The lid never stayed open long enough for us to escape, if we even managed to be awake when it was opened.
Finally, just when I was sure I would go insane if Hieronymus complained one more time that he was cold and his wings were stiff, the lid opened, washing the interior of the cauldron with light, and stayed open.
Hieronymus, and I rushed for the opening and flew out into sunlight so bright it burned my eyes. I took in deep gulps of the hot, clean air - living in a pot with two other people and no bathroom had been stifling. I didn’t bother to get an idea of my surroundings. I closed my eyes, shifted to full-size and got into a fighting stance, fists raised.
I opened my eyes, squinting, and punched out at the first fuzzy figure I could see, but someone grabbed my hand before I could make contact. “Chloe,” Frost said. “It’s me. You’re safe. Calm down.”
I blinked and focused on Frost’s warm smile. “You’re free?” I asked.
He nodded. “The elves left their camp yesterday and they took their magic nets with them. They tied us with ordinary ropes. It took us most of yesterday and this morning, but we got free.”
I sighed and threw my arms around him. “It’s so good to see you. I thought I was never going to get out of that pot.”
“You should have known I wouldn’t let you stay in there.” His voice was a bit choked. Was he crying? Had he missed me that much?
I leaned back and studied his pinched expression. “It’s okay,” I said. “I’m safe. I’m here.”
“And you stink.” He gently pushed me from his arms. “I love you and you need to bathe before you get that close to me again.”
I looked around to see the other members of our crew backing away from a full-sized Hieronymus.
“There’s a creek about a half mile from here,” Pippi said, stepping up next to me. “I’ll take you there to bathe.”
***
After we’d gotten cleaned up and changed our clothes, we walked back to the campsite to find our friends seated around a bonfire. Frost smiled at me, the glow of the fire illuminating his features in the dim light of evening. He motioned for me to join him and I went, because I’d missed him and I wanted to touch him, to be close to him.
He pulled me into his lap as soon as I was close enough. “I’d have joined you at the creek,” he said. “But I knew if I saw you bare, I wouldn’t be able to resist touching you and, if I touched you, I wouldn’t be able to stop.”
I scoffed. “You are such an animal.”
He nuzzled my neck and pressed a kiss right below my ear. “I’ll show you just how much of an animal I can be once everyone else is asleep.”
“What’s the plan?” Hieronymus asked. He stood at the edge of the campfire, his hair dripping from his bath. His shoulders were stiff and his jaw was set in a firm line. “Now that we’re free, we need to go straight to the palace.”
“Straight to the palace to fight twenty-five queens?” I asked. “That would be suicide.”
“The queens aren’t just sitting around the palace waiting for someone to get together and try to take them all out,” Pippi said. “The elves talked and, according to them, the queens are traveling to the different kingdoms in Rubalia so they can rule from the seats of power already established. The elves left today to set up ambushes and take them out before they reach those seats of power. I have no idea if they’ve got any shot of success.”
Shit. Damn. Fuck. This was not how this was supposed to go. We were only supposed to have to defeat one nightmare queen and, even when we thought there’d be twenty-five more queens to defeat, they were supposed to be all in one place. “Well, at least there’ll be fewer queens to fight at the fairy palace.”
Vin sighed. “If we can believe what the elves told us, nightmares from all over Rubalia have gone to the fairy palace to escort the queens. They’re in the middle of a three-day celebration and then the queens will leave with their, very large, personal armies composed of Rubalian natives and nightmares.”
Bluebell gave a moan of disappointment next to me and even Hieronymus looked to be in despair.
“But we can go to the palace as soon as the other queens and the extra nightmares leave, right?”
“No,” Lensy said. “For the next day and a half, the palace will be open to allow the queens and their armies and visitors to come and go. After the queens leave, Ludwiggia will lock the palace down tight, guarded by her own army, and no one will be allowed to enter or leave.”
I looked over Lensy’s head at Hieronymus. “But you know a secret way in, right?”
He nodded. “I can’t be sure, however, that Ludwiggia won’t have found it and have it guarded. I had not anticipated that she would build her army and secure the palace so thoroughly or so quickly.”
He’d counted on her arrogance making her careless. He’d been wrong. We’d all been wrong. “I say we take our chances with Hieronymus’ secret entrance,” Pippi said. “It’s got to be better than going up against twenty-five queens at once.”
I looked around at my friends, people I’d gotten to know over the course of our journey, people I didn’t want to watch die. “I will take the chance with Hieronymus’ secret entrance. The rest of you should wait for me here.”
Pippi stood and got in my face. “You trying to be a hero or a martyr?”
I sighed. “I’m just trying to give everyone the best shot at survival, our best shot of winning this. If all of us go into that castle, there’s no way we won’t be noticed and lose the element of surprise.”
“And there’s no way you’ll beat Ludwiggia on your own,” Pippi said. “Fuck the element of surprise, we need to have an actual shot of defeating her or all of this has been a complete waste.”
“I’ll go with her,” Benny said.
Pippi turned her glare on him. “Really? And that’s supposed to make me feel better? You’re just as likely to turn on us if things don’t go your way.”
Benny growled, but he looked more amused than angry. “What’s the real problem here, redcap? You can’t stand anyone else taking the glory?”
Pippi’s face reddened with fury and she clenched her hands in tight fists. “You—”
“Enough,” Frost said, standing and getting between Pippi and Benny. “We could argue about this all day and get no closer to a decision. Chloe’s right,
too many of us stomping into that castle will ruin any shot we have of taking Ludwiggia by surprise.”
Pippi huffed. “Fine. But she can’t take on Ludwiggia by herself, that’s ridiculous.”
“I have some innate protection against the nightmares,” Benny said, his voice calm and conciliatory. “If Ludwiggia destroys my amulet, I should be able to fight her mind control.”
Pippi tensed again and all eyes were on Benny, many eyebrows raised. I should have figured it out when he told me about his mixed heritage, but I hadn’t. “What the fuck are you talking about?” Pippi asked. She glared at Chelsea, who looked equally confused. “Dragons have some sort of natural resistance to nightmares?”
Chelsea shook her head, her eyes on Benny. “Not that I’m aware of.”
Benny avoided eye contact. “My father was a nightmare,” he said. “I inherited an ability to withstand the mind control.”
Jaws dropped and gasps echoed around our small group. “You think you might have mentioned this sooner?” Frost asked. He didn’t look my way, or he’d have seen guilt written in my expression.
“That I’m related to those ruthless motherfuckers?” Benny asked. “I figured that was strictly need to know information. I didn’t want you all afraid that I was going to use mind control on you.”
“Could you?” Lensy asked, her voice tinged with fear.
Benny flinched like he’d been hit, before his expression hardened. “No,” he said. “That’s not a skill I inherited. The point is, I’ve got dragon strength and a natural ability to withstand Ludwiggia’s mind control. I’m the most obvious choice to go with Chloe to face her.”
Everyone was silent while they considered Benny’s words. Frost met my eyes, his eyebrows raised in question. I nodded. Benny was right that he had the skills and I was okay with him going with me. I trusted him enough for that. Pain crossed Frost’s expression, but he nodded. I’m sure he wanted to be the one to go with me, but he accepted that he wasn’t the best choice in this situation.
“I want to go, too,” Hieronymus said. “I know my way around and I may know the guards, if Ludwiggia hasn’t changed them.”
“Anyone got a problem with that plan?” I asked the group. Frost stepped up next to me and wrapped an arm around my waist, his hand slipping under my shirt to make skin-to-skin contact. No one offered an argument. “Good,” I said. “When do we leave?”
“We should leave tomorrow,” Vin said. “It will take us a while to reach the castle. Hopefully, the elves will have taken care of the other queens by the time we get there.”
I’d spent days in a dark pot, I was rested and ready to get moving. “What will we do until then?” I asked.
“We rest,” Frost said. “We hunt for food for our journey and we train.”
***
We left the next morning with the dawn. We’d gone only a couple of miles from camp when a familiar figure appeared on the worn path ahead of us. We readied our weapons, but the figure made no move to arm herself. “I mean you no harm,” she said. As she approached, I realized it was Posy. She was dirty and looked exhausted, but she appeared to be unhurt. “You got free,” she said. “I was on my way back to release you.”
“What happened?”
“Nothing went quite as planned,” she said. “My group had the closest ambush and we succeeded. We killed the nightmare queen easily. But the nightmares with her didn’t act as we’d expected.” Her voice was rough, she had dark circles under her eyes, and I wondered what had drained her so much. It bothered me a bit that the queens had to be killed, that they couldn’t have been captured and returned to the nightmare realm. Maybe though, as had been true for us in the Non when we went up against the nightmares, capturing the queens alive had never really been an option.
“What happened to the nightmares without their queens?”
She shook her head. “Based on everything we all knew about the nightmares, we expected them to stop fighting, to flee. But that’s not what happened. Without their queen, the nightmares became enraged and they killed any and everyone they could find. They didn’t even try to enthrall anyone or play mind games. It was an outright massacre.” Her face twisted with pain. “Everyone in my group was killed. I managed to survive only because I ran when I saw there was no hope of victory.”
Damn it, a major part of our plan hinged on the idea that once we conquered or captured Ludwiggia, her nightmares would cease to function on their own. But we were wrong, fatally wrong. If we killed Ludwiggia, all the nightmares in her army would come after us. They’d maintain control of Rubalia and we’d all die or become their prisoners. I’d choose death, myself, after hearing Archibald and Benny’s stories of life under their rule.
“It gets worse,” she said. “Those nightmares, the other queens’ armies, they all went back to the palace as far as our spies can tell. They went back to the fairy palace and seem to be controlled by Ludwiggia. I understand that you want to offer fealty to Ludwiggia, but facing her enraged nightmares may make your mission considerably more dangerous.”
I wished we could tell Posy the truth, but we couldn’t trust her. “We’ll take our chances,” I said. “Thank you for trying to help us.”
She shrugged. “I don’t like you or what you’re trying to do, but I’m not a monster. Compassion is what separates us from the true monsters.”
She turned and headed back the way she’d come at a jog, probably in a hurry to find the other elves who’d set out to ambush the queens.
***
We walked until we’d reached the edge of the wilds and the daylight had begun to fade, and then we made camp. A hand on my shoulder stopped me in the middle of unrolling my bedroll. I looked up to see Frost, his expression heated, and he didn’t need words for me to understand exactly what he wanted. What he needed.
I stood and intertwined my fingers in his and let him lead me into the dim forest. He didn’t go far before he spun and wrapped his arms around me. His hands slid under my shirt and he pulled me tight into him, his need desperate. “I hate the idea of you walking into that palace without me,” he said.
“I hate it, too.”
He nipped my neck and then laved it with his tongue. “But I know you’ll destroy Ludwiggia and you’ll come back to me,” he said. “I want you to do whatever it takes to stay alive.” He pulled back and met my eyes, his glowing amber in the dim light. “You understand me? You do whatever it takes to come back to me.”
I nodded. I didn’t need to ask what he meant. I knew I was more important to him than Benny or anyone else, and he’d be willing to sacrifice them all to keep me safe. I understood that, even if I didn’t agree with him, because I’d feel the same if our roles were reversed. At the same time, the very fact that he was willing to let me walk into that palace alone meant he believed in our cause, meant he wanted to save Rubalia.
I also knew I wouldn’t do what he asked. If saving all the people of Rubalia meant sacrificing myself, I would do it. I might be willing to let Benny take the fall for me, but that was about as far as I would be able to agree to Frost’s request. Rather than argue with him, I pressed my mouth to his and licked his lips. He groaned and pulled me tighter, grinding his center against my own. “I need you,” he said, his voice rough.
“I know,” I said. “I need you, too. Make it hard and rough and fast, so I feel you even when you aren’t with me.”
He growled again and spun me, pressing my hands against a tree and grinding into my ass. “Like this?”
“Yes,” I said, already breathless, already panting with need. “Exactly like this.”
He pulled away long enough to slide my pants and panties off and then he was inside me in one long, hard thrust that had me seeing stars and moaning with pleasure. I didn’t think about our friends, close enough to hear every sound I made, or the danger we were walking into. All I felt and saw and heard was him.
He thrust into me hard, again and again, until I was ready to scream with pleasure. Then he paused
and reached between my legs, touching me, and I did scream as I shattered around him. He returned to his hard thrusts, his hand still on me, causing aftershocks that warmed me all over, before he growled with his own release.
He kissed the back of my neck and held me close as we both came back down to earth, and then he helped me dress, pulled up his own pants, and led me back to our campsite, where we laid down together and he wrapped his arms tight around me, like he was never going to let me go.
I stared at the stars that blinked between the leaves of the trees above us and I breathed in Frost, the smell of him and the feel of him, so that, no matter what happened, I’d never forget him. I should have been sleeping. I needed rest to prepare for our expedition, but I didn’t want to miss a moment of my time with him.
If I’d been asleep, I wouldn’t have heard the hiss of movement. I wouldn’t have sat up and seen the deeper darkness creeping into our camp. The moon was no longer full, but it provided a dim light, enough to make out the velvet shadows drifting in from the East. I shoved Frost and he grunted, but sat up without another sound. I pointed to the edge of our camp, hoping his better eyes would be able to determine whether I was seeing shadows or if the darkness was the delusion of an anxious mind.
“I see it,” he whispered. “Get Benny and go. Now.”
I wanted to argue. I wanted to stay and fight, but I knew he was right. If we had any hope of winning, Benny and I needed to go after Ludwiggia. I couldn’t risk dying in this forest. I pressed a hard kiss to his mouth. “I love you,” I said.
I stood and made my way to Benny, nudging everyone I passed and warning them to be ready, that the shadows had arrived and the nightmares wouldn’t be far behind. I tried not to look too hard at their faces, because if I looked at them, if I thought of them as my friends, I wouldn’t be able to walk away. I had to trust they could fight and win, I had to believe we could get to Ludwiggia and stop her before she sent more nightmares our way.
Fairy, Neat (Fairy Files Book 6) Page 21